Backgrounder about ICLEI, UN and

By Sue Forde 8/15/2011

In this regard, there are 4 basic terms you need to know: (1) ICLEI (3) Sustainable Development (2) Agenda 21 (4) The Wildlands Project

What is ICLEI and why is it bad?

ICLEI is the acronym for International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives. The name was changed to ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability.

ICLEI was set up to promote UN Agenda 21 in local communities. There are already over 600 and counties in the US that have signed on and are dues-paying members of ICLEI, including Clallam County and the of Sequim. The mantra is “think globally, act locally”. (As people are becoming aware of the dangers this presents to our freedoms, they are pressing their elected officials to withdraw – and so far, 8 counties/cities have done so, with many more in the works.)

ICLEI is governed by the ICLEI “global charter”. This Charter calls for the “World Organization of United Cities and Local Governments”. One of its goals is to build and serve a worldwide movement of local government to achieve tangible improvements in global sustainability with special focus on environmental conditions through cumulative local actions.

Harvey Ruvin, Vice Chairman, ICLEI. The Wildlands Project, said “Individual rights will have to take a back seat to the collective.” (You can’t get more communist than using the word ‘collective’ in a sentence.

This is in direct conflict with our US Constitution and State Constitution, both of which are established to “protect and maintain individual rights.” It is also in direct conflict with the sovereignty of our nation.

ICLEI’s website openly admits that its Local Agenda 21 Model Communities Program will “aid local governments in implementing Chapter 28 of Agenda 21, the global action plan for sustainable development.”

What is Sustainable Development?

Sustainable Development is the Action plan promoted under UN Agenda 21. It was born at the UN Conference in Rio in 1992 (Earth Summit II).

Sustainable Development is a framework of thought to "save our planet" by harmonizing eco-systems with industry and population. In its most modern iteration (inasmuch it has been around a long time), it is the outcome of the Earth Summit, and is organized around "climate change", man's impact on environmental resources and the organic biosphere we live within. It is currently getting notoriety as the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which is the Treaty that legally binds all nations to Agenda 21. Although much larger than this, we could summarize that it is the outcome of Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truths. It is a blueprint to 'radically change the entire world in the name of Economic, Social, and Environmental EQUITY’.

1 Maurice Strong, socialist, senior adviser to the Commission on Global Governance and driving force behind promoting the concept of “sustainability”, said when introducing the term at the 1992 Rio Conference (Earth Summit II):

Industrialized countries [Americans] have “developed and benefited from the unsustainable patterns of production and consumption which have produced our present dilemma. It is clear that current lifestyles and consumption pattern of the affluent middle class – involving high meat intake, consumption of large amounts of frozen and convenience foods, use of fossil fuels, appliances, home and work-place air- conditioning and suburban housing – are not sustainable. A shift is necessary toward lifestyles less geared to environmentally damaging consumption patterns.”

Strong also explains in an essay that the concept of sovereignty has to yield in favor of the “new imperatives of global environmental cooperative.”

The stated goal of Sustainable development is a “pattern of resource use that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come”. This is one of the key politically correct ways Agenda 21 is pushed. According to the UN, here is a list of things that do not fit into sustainable development plans.

“Ski runs, grazing of livestock, plowing of soil, building fences, industry, single family homes, paves and tarred roads, logging activities, dams and reservoirs, power line construction, and economic systems that fail to set proper value on the environment.” -UN’s Biodiversity Assessment Report.

UN Agenda 21 also incorporates The Wildlands Project - which calls for 50% or more of the US to be placed in “wilderness” where no one can go, and moving people into city centers surrounded by buffer areas). We see that pushed here on our own Olympic Peninsula with our Olympic National Park – designated as both a UN biosphere and a World Heritage Park – a consortium of environmentalists are pushing for the Wild Olympics, which would create even MORE wilderness area, and designate our rivers in the Park as “wild and scenic”.

The Agenda 21 plan is being advanced under an array of deceptively labeled initiatives such as: cap and trade, planning committees, global warming, visioning councils, population control, watershed councils, gun control, walkable communities, open borders and illegal immigration, light rail, bicycle and walking trails, higher taxes, the destruction of dams, higher gasoline prices, the closures of roads, refusal to drill for oil and natural gas, the prohibition of resource extraction education restructuring, including timber and oil, international IDs, the reintroduction of wild animals, health supplement control, management of forest to allow food control, catastrophic fired, farming “reform” (500’ buffers proposed centralized control over water would cut out 62% of our farming) and other mechanisms designed to smart growth, force people into urban, so-called smart meters, “Smart Growth” communities, growth management, all controlling and removing private public-private partnership, property rights, a plethora of government bureaucratic and also affecting education and human regulations, population control.

2 What is goal of Agenda 21?

The United Nations defines it this way:

“Land… cannot be treated as an ordinary asset, controlled by individuals and subject to the pressures and inefficiencies of the market… The provision of decent dwellings and healthy conditions for the people can only be achieved if land is used in the interest of society as a whole.” This can’t be a choice according to the UN:

“Agenda 21 proposes an array of actions which are intended to be implemented by EVERY person on Earth…it calls for specific changes in the activities of ALL people… Effective execution of Agenda 21 will REQUIRE a profound reorientation of ALL humans, unlike anything the world has ever experienced… ” Agenda 21: The Earth Summit Strategy to Save Our Planet (Earthpress, 1993)

The concept of “sustainability” being pushed forward by UN Agenda 21 is, in fact, nothing less than socialism. From the time of the Rio Conference, to the setup by President Clinton of the "President's Council on Sustainable Development", to the implementation within federal and state agencies, and now with Obama’s “czars”, the UN Agenda 21 plan is being implemented without most people even being aware of it, and all that it means to the "fundamental change" from individual liberty to a combination of socialism and Marxism. (Remember the “fundamental change” that Obama spoke about when he ran for president?) Today, it is being put into action by many federal agencies, state agencies, county, city and town planning departments.

There is so much more to learn and know about this issue that threatens our way of life; I strongly urge you to research it for yourselves. There are many websites dedicated to the issue of Agenda 21, Sustainable Development and The Wildlands Project. One you can check out is www.nwri.org; another website is www.takingliberty.us. Or just type the term into a search engine, and start reading.

Under Sustainable Development, the recognition of the unalienable right to one’s life, liberty and property is lost. This subtle war on freedom IS a global to local one.

Our defense relies on a local response designed to generate national impact. This resolution is a step in that direction. Each of us can take action like lobbying our elected officials to get us out of all programs related to Agenda 21. A working committee or task force to work on this issue is another possibility. There are several booklets on the subject we can acquire to hand out to individuals to help educate, as well.

3 Side Note on The Wildlands Project:

Dave Foreman, founder of Earth First! and co-founder of The Wildlands Project, stated, “We must make this place (the earth) an insecure and inhospitable place for Capitalists and their projects – we must reclaim the roads and plowed lands, halt dam construction, tear down existing dams, free shackled rivers and return to wilderness tens of millions of acres or presently settled land.” (He’s talking about humans who work for a living and build things - that’s you and me.)

Side Note on ICLEI:

Proponents will try to tell you that ICLEI is an “independent nonprofit association”, not a United Nations agency or controlled by the UN in any way.

The ICLEI Charter 1:3 says: “The Association shall maintain its formal institutional relationships with its founder patrons, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Union of Local Authorities (IULA), the latter from 1 January 2004 merged into the newly established World Organization of United Cities and Local Governments (Section 1:2 ICLEI Charter).

ICLEI’s Mission reads: “The Association’s mission shall be to build and serve a worldwide movement of local government to achieve tangible improvements in global sustainability with special focus on environmental conditions through cumulative local actions (ICLEI Charter 1:2)

ICLEI Charter 1:6 states: “The Association shall serve as an international representative for its members and campaign participants by providing advocacy before national and international governments, agencies and organizations and multilateral bodies to increase their understanding and support for local sustainable development and environmental protection activities.”

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